Do you mean the historical interaction between African martial arts and boxing, or the history of both as separate subjects?

If the former, try to track down a copy of Dr. Thomas Desch-Obi's doctoral thesis, Engolo: Combat traditions in African and African diaspora history, via the university library Interloan system. It's nearly 400 pages long and offers what is probably the most comprehensive overview of this subject. Most significantly, one of the later sections references "cutting", which was the slang term for a fusion of African martial arts and bare-knuckle prize fighting as used in the "human cockfights" organised by slave-owners in the 1700s. A (possibly) similar style is still very popular in Senegal, where it is known as "lutte avec frappe" (wrestling with strikes).

from my research English (/Western, american whatever) boxing was not meaningfully influenced by any other 'style' - certainly not African. Even the much talked about filipino influence is wsomewhat suspect. English boxing goes back to around the 1600s and was initially much like MMA but with a preferance on punching, which over time became quite stylised as the rules became ever more restrictive. The ARMA are very goofd for boxing history. Oh, and in terms of "boxing", also look up ancient Greek/Roman practices.

We had a good, substantive thread on boxing history and the putative Filipino influence on modern boxing at the MA History Project forum a while back. The consensus was that rule and equipment changes probably had a much greater influence on the modern sport than direct influences from other form of fist-fighting, but it's hard to say for certain.

It is demonstrable that a range of fight-fighting styles did emerge from Africa, but other than cutting I can't recall any historical examples of what happened when they encountered the European style.

Don't make me throw you off the Lei Tai. Anyway no I wanted it in this section just in case. This is to be seperate between the two. I need history and names and this is a priority case that I don't have 100% time to dedicate to. No BS history just some simple leads is all I need if it's bullshit we'll pan it out later and I will thump you.